City police chief search continues
By Gary Popp
Published in News on January 27, 2012 1:46 PM
The pool of applicants vying for the position of Goldsboro police chief reached 74 before the Jan. 17 deadline, and now city officials are working to winnow that number down to five as they hope to have a new leader named within a month.
"I am pleased with what we got. We have folks from across North Carolina and surrounding states," said City Manager Scott Stevens, who has the sole authority to appoint the next chief.
Maj. Jeff Stewart has served as interim chief since the retirement of Tim Bell in March 2011.
Stevens said fewer than three applications came from members of the Goldsboro Police Department.
He said he hopes to name the new chief by March 1.
Stevens and the city's Human Resources Management Director Faye Reeves are each separately creating short lists of whom they consider the most qualified candidates.
He said those short lists, of five to 10 applicants, will be completed today.
"If our lists are the same that will be easier," Stevens said. "Getting to the top five (applicants) will be a lot harder."
He said they will then work together to create a single list before breaking for the city council's annual retreat Feb. 14-15.
Stevens said he hopes to begin interviews with their top four to six candidates after the retreat during the week of either Feb. 20 or Feb. 27.
He said the interviews and assessment of the final candidates will likely be done with the help of city department heads and experienced lawmen and public safety officials from agencies outside Wayne County, as well as a small number of community members from Goldsboro.
At this point, though, Stevens said no one has been named to that panel.
He said he expects the day-long interviews to include questions from the panel, unprepared written samples on general law enforcement topics, presentations on preselected topics -- all to test their knowledge and display their communication skills.
"The ability to communicate with people is a key part of the chief's job," Stevens said.